Inside the Phillies with MLB.com beat writer Todd Zolecki

The Rings Are Here

And when I say nice, I mean they’re a lot nicer than my high school class ring.

The Phillies invited everybody to the ring ceremony. It had been known that Pat Burrell, Geoff Jenkins and Kyle Kendrick would attend, but in a bit of a surprise Adam Eaton showed up, too.

“Mr. (David) Montgomery called, which went a long way,” Eaton said. “You don’t get too many opportunities for this chance, and to share it with these guys is something special.”

So, uh, what kind of reaction do you think you’re going to get?

“What do you think?” he said, smiling. “Everybody joked about what I should do. I’m not going to do anything because it was pretty disrespectful. At the same time they’re allowed to do what they want to do, but at the same time we’re honoring a team, not just one person or anything like that. I think the atmosphere out there is going to be very positive. I’m sure there’s going to be a smattering of boos, but we’ll move on and get my ring. I’m very excited obviously.”

Adam Eaton was trying to say that if he had not been as bad as he was, we wouldn’t have gotten Joe Blanton and the bullpen might not have been strengthened enough to make that run through the post season. He was personally responsible for everyone else’s high level of performance. So maybe we should cheer the guy…

I ran into Michael Barkann again at the ballpark. This time I actually got to talk to him for a few minutes, before he had to run and do the pre-show on CSN. One more time, and we’ll officially be best friends.

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